A year (or almost) after the publication of his latest story “New York suburbs of Tunis”, the writer and journalist Taoufik Ben brik returns, in this October, with a new book entitled “Les Brothers Hamlet” (by Dar El Janoub, Sud Editions). An “unclassifiable” book, in which Ben Brik criticizes the current political scene in a Shakespearean setting.
On the form side, “the Hamlet brothers” is a work of 176 pages, in 13 chapters or “situations”, written in Arabic, and presented by Professor Hamdi Hmaidi. Like “Kalb Ben Kalb” (2013) and “Kawasaki” (2014), the illustration of the coverage of the “Hamlet brothers” was produced by the caricaturist “Z”.
The title of the book, “The Hamlet brothers”, is a kind of combination between “the Karamazov brothers” (1879-1880), of the Russian writer Fiodor Dostoyevski, and “Hamlet” (1603), of the English playwright William Shakespeare.
“The book highlights the existing dichotomy between celestial power and earthly power. On the one hand, there is the great Shakespeare and his theory of divine power, and on the other, Fiodor Dostoyevski, where this theory of power is rather human, “explains Ben Brik.
As for the concomitance of the publication of his book with the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare this year, the author ensures that “this is only a pure coincidence”.
In this same framework, Taoufik Ben Brik refuses the classification of his book under a very specific literary genre. “I understand reality and fiction in my own way. I do not want to be imposed on me a rigid framework, ”he justified, lately.
On the merits, let’s face that this book is not within the reach of all readers. It is a summary of cultural references, sustained language … A real labyrinth.
Ben Brik deploys, in this work, his talent as a writer and his mastery of Shakespeare’s tragedies to trace, although indirectly, the political news of the moment. He tells us about the Machiavellianism of political decision -makers, the submission of intellectuals to the dictator, political assassination, betrayal, etc.
In terms of characters, apart from (the Hamlet brothers), who are respectively “Hamlet”, “Macbeth” and “The King Lear”, another protagonist, “Sarek al Adab” (or “The thief of literature”), is omnipresent.
His appearances are generally winks attributed to the great Arab poets and writers, such as Al-Mutanabbi, Al-Jahedh, Abu Nawas, Omar Khayyam, Antara Ibn Chadded, Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, Mahmoud Darwich, and even Tunisians, such as Mahmoud Messadi and Sghaier Ouled Ahmed. Names that have marked Arab literature and to which Taoufik ben Brik pays homage.
Otherwise, it has the impression that through this book-as in most of his books post-January 14, moreover-, and via his attempts to create a new literary genre and a new writing style, Ben Brik is looking for recognition from literary circles … Recognition that he did not find in political circles.
Slim Mestiri
